Snuff out your scented candles - because there's a hot new trend in home fragrance. Yes, incense is back.
Its surprising cheerleader is none other than supermodel turned wellness advocate Kate Moss, who recently launched Cosmoss Sacred Mist incense.
A beautifully packaged addition to Kate's Cosmoss skincare and fragrance range, it is, she says, designed to create ‘a calming ambience to meditate, reflect and relax'.
But you don't need to be a born-again yoga bunny to have your passion for incense ignited. There's simply nothing like it for an instant fragrance transformation.
Candles fill a room with their scent very slowly. Room mists and air fresheners are instant - but sadly, the scent tends to quickly disappear.
Incense (pictured) is back - and there's simply nothing like it for an instant fragrance transformation
By contrast, as leading perfumer Francis Kurkdjian (creator of global bestseller Baccarat Rouge 540) explains, his own favourite incense ‘fills the room in five minutes'.
Francis favours a traditional Japanese style of incense, used by several of the brands below: slim rods, made from a paste of aromatic ingredients, without a stick at their core.
Other options include cones or nuggets - shaped from scented paste - as well as stick incense, the most popular kind, made by dipping bamboo sticks repeatedly into a fragrant mixture.
As long ago as 3000 BC, Egyptian priests burned incense made from aromatic resins and herbs to connect with the gods.
Perfume even gets its name from the Latin phrase ‘per fumum', or ‘through smoke', and incense is still widely used in religious ceremonies around the world.
In recent years it's fallen from favour due to a lingering hippy association. But it is calculated to appeal to devotees of the modern cult of wellness, who see lighting a stick or cone of incense as a soothing ritual after the chaos of the everyday.
Even upscale perfume brands Loewe and Byredo are getting in on the incense act. I tested the best on offer...
GOLD, FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH
Perfumer H Gold Incense Sticks, £35 for 30 and brass holder, perfumerh.com
British perfumer Lyn Harris has helped lead the incense revival. Her fragrant sticks are made by one of just a handful of traditional Japanese incense producers in Kyoto, which supplies Buddhist temples. Just-launched Gold is the summer bestseller at Lyn's super-cool Mayfair boutique, richly swirling with citrus fruits, spices, frankincense and myrrh.
EAU DE KATE MOSS
Cosmoss Incense Sticks, £32 for 30, cosmossbykatemoss.com
Echoing Kate Moss's award-winning Cosmoss Sacred Mist fragrance, these sticks blend notes of fresh citrus, orange flower, bergamot, tuberose, oak moss and cedarwood, ‘to fill your space with heavenly aromas of relaxation'.
RICH, REALISTIC JASMINE
Temple of Incense Jasmine Blossom, £10 for 20, templeofincense.com
From an online incense store with a truly vast range of offerings, the scent of jasmine is linked with good luck in love, wealth, sleep, healing and harmony. This is rich, intense, exotic and faithful to the scent of the bloom.
Temple of Incense Jasmine Blossom, £10 for 20, templeofincense.com
GORGEOUSLY GREEN
Loewe Tomato Leaf, £45 for 25, perfumesloewe.com
One of two incense options from the coveted, luxe Spanish fashion and leather goods brand (the other is honeyed floral Ivy Leaf), this takes you straight to grandad's greenhouse with tomato-y wafts.
AROMATIC INDIA
Astier de Villatte Delhi, £45 for 125, astierdevillatte.com
Famed for hand-made white ceramics, AdV also offers more than a dozen options in its luxury incense collection, inspired by different cities.
This is like ‘India lite', an exotic but never overwhelming fusion of resins, vanilla wood, musk and herbs.
HIPSTER LIBRARY
Earl of East Elementary, £18 for 16 cones, earlofeast.com
Hipsters adore Earl of East - and these incense cones sell out regularly in the London brand's lifestyle stores. This scent, ‘Elementary', conjures up an old library, via smoky tendrils of sweet tobacco, amber and hints of leather.
CELEBRITY SLEEP ENHANCER
Psychic Sisters Sleep Well, £7 for 14, psychicsisters.com
You may not have heard of British clairvoyant Jayne Wallace - but her wellness brand, Psychic Sisters, which has an outpost in Selfridges in London, has launched a range of incense including a blend of lavender and chamomile designed to help you fall asleep. They've apparently also been ‘reiki-charged and energised', for an extra feel-good factor.
ANCIENT RITUAL
Officine Universelle Buly Mount Athos Incense, £21.35, buly1803.com
Inspired by a 2,000-year tradition of burning incense at the ancient Greek Orthodox monasteries on Mount Athos, these small, pale pebbles of incense are still made by monks. They are available in 14 scents, including headily floral Gardenia. Ignite a single nugget to fragrance a room - or leave the box open, and its scent will escape gently.
SUPER CHIC (AND SPENDY)
Byredo Trois Encens Incense Stick Set, £134, byredo.com
If you don't mind burning cash, as well as incense, three of this cult scent brand's iconic fragrances - Burning Rose, Bibliothèque and Sweet Grass - have been reborn in a pricey incense set offering 60 chubby sticks (hand-made in Tokyo), plus a stylish ceramic holder.
Kate Moss
Its surprising cheerleader is none other than supermodel turned wellness advocate Kate Moss, who recently launched Cosmoss Sacred Mist incense.
A beautifully packaged addition to Kate's Cosmoss skincare and fragrance range, it is, she says, designed to create ‘a calming ambience to meditate, reflect and relax'.
But you don't need to be a born-again yoga bunny to have your passion for incense ignited. There's simply nothing like it for an instant fragrance transformation.
Candles fill a room with their scent very slowly. Room mists and air fresheners are instant - but sadly, the scent tends to quickly disappear.
Incense (pictured) is back - and there's simply nothing like it for an instant fragrance transformation
By contrast, as leading perfumer Francis Kurkdjian (creator of global bestseller Baccarat Rouge 540) explains, his own favourite incense ‘fills the room in five minutes'.
Francis favours a traditional Japanese style of incense, used by several of the brands below: slim rods, made from a paste of aromatic ingredients, without a stick at their core.
Other options include cones or nuggets - shaped from scented paste - as well as stick incense, the most popular kind, made by dipping bamboo sticks repeatedly into a fragrant mixture.
As long ago as 3000 BC, Egyptian priests burned incense made from aromatic resins and herbs to connect with the gods.
Perfume even gets its name from the Latin phrase ‘per fumum', or ‘through smoke', and incense is still widely used in religious ceremonies around the world.
In recent years it's fallen from favour due to a lingering hippy association. But it is calculated to appeal to devotees of the modern cult of wellness, who see lighting a stick or cone of incense as a soothing ritual after the chaos of the everyday.
Even upscale perfume brands Loewe and Byredo are getting in on the incense act. I tested the best on offer...
GOLD, FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH
Perfumer H Gold Incense Sticks, £35 for 30 and brass holder, perfumerh.com
British perfumer Lyn Harris has helped lead the incense revival. Her fragrant sticks are made by one of just a handful of traditional Japanese incense producers in Kyoto, which supplies Buddhist temples. Just-launched Gold is the summer bestseller at Lyn's super-cool Mayfair boutique, richly swirling with citrus fruits, spices, frankincense and myrrh.
EAU DE KATE MOSS
Cosmoss Incense Sticks, £32 for 30, cosmossbykatemoss.com
Echoing Kate Moss's award-winning Cosmoss Sacred Mist fragrance, these sticks blend notes of fresh citrus, orange flower, bergamot, tuberose, oak moss and cedarwood, ‘to fill your space with heavenly aromas of relaxation'.
RICH, REALISTIC JASMINE
Temple of Incense Jasmine Blossom, £10 for 20, templeofincense.com
From an online incense store with a truly vast range of offerings, the scent of jasmine is linked with good luck in love, wealth, sleep, healing and harmony. This is rich, intense, exotic and faithful to the scent of the bloom.
Temple of Incense Jasmine Blossom, £10 for 20, templeofincense.com
GORGEOUSLY GREEN
Loewe Tomato Leaf, £45 for 25, perfumesloewe.com
One of two incense options from the coveted, luxe Spanish fashion and leather goods brand (the other is honeyed floral Ivy Leaf), this takes you straight to grandad's greenhouse with tomato-y wafts.
AROMATIC INDIA
Astier de Villatte Delhi, £45 for 125, astierdevillatte.com
Famed for hand-made white ceramics, AdV also offers more than a dozen options in its luxury incense collection, inspired by different cities.
This is like ‘India lite', an exotic but never overwhelming fusion of resins, vanilla wood, musk and herbs.
HIPSTER LIBRARY
Earl of East Elementary, £18 for 16 cones, earlofeast.com
Hipsters adore Earl of East - and these incense cones sell out regularly in the London brand's lifestyle stores. This scent, ‘Elementary', conjures up an old library, via smoky tendrils of sweet tobacco, amber and hints of leather.
CELEBRITY SLEEP ENHANCER
Psychic Sisters Sleep Well, £7 for 14, psychicsisters.com
You may not have heard of British clairvoyant Jayne Wallace - but her wellness brand, Psychic Sisters, which has an outpost in Selfridges in London, has launched a range of incense including a blend of lavender and chamomile designed to help you fall asleep. They've apparently also been ‘reiki-charged and energised', for an extra feel-good factor.
ANCIENT RITUAL
Officine Universelle Buly Mount Athos Incense, £21.35, buly1803.com
Inspired by a 2,000-year tradition of burning incense at the ancient Greek Orthodox monasteries on Mount Athos, these small, pale pebbles of incense are still made by monks. They are available in 14 scents, including headily floral Gardenia. Ignite a single nugget to fragrance a room - or leave the box open, and its scent will escape gently.
SUPER CHIC (AND SPENDY)
Byredo Trois Encens Incense Stick Set, £134, byredo.com
If you don't mind burning cash, as well as incense, three of this cult scent brand's iconic fragrances - Burning Rose, Bibliothèque and Sweet Grass - have been reborn in a pricey incense set offering 60 chubby sticks (hand-made in Tokyo), plus a stylish ceramic holder.
Kate Moss